As an admissions consulting firm specialized in international applicants, we know the many obstacles international students have to overcome in order to be accepted into a top-ranked business school.
For many students, one of the biggest hurdles is deciding where to attend business school.
With the business world becoming increasingly global, many candidates are looking for an MBA program that helps them build the tools they need to thrive in this new reality, without losing the human touch.
One of the school’s that consistently ranks at the top of the list for globally-minded MBA hopefuls is IESE Business School, in Barcelona, Spain. Ranked the 11th best MBA program in the world by the Financial Times, IESE has drawn increasingly larger applicant pools each year.
That’s why I touched base with Pascal Michels, Head of MBA Admissions at IESE Business School to get an insider’s view into the changes IESE has made both to its application and program and to understand more about the value an IESE MBA delivers not just during your MBA, but for a lifetime.
(Pascal Michels, Head of MBA Admissions at IESE Business School)
Ellin Lolis: Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Michels! I’d love to start out talking about changes to IESE’s application this year. We noticed you’ve introduced an early decision application round for the first time. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Pascal Michels: We were doing fine with our usual four round application model, which has been very successful in the past year. However, we noticed in recent years that there is an overall trend to earlier applications, with volumes shifting towards round 1 vs. round 2. Within that shift, clearly, there is a population of applicants who are very early movers and who like to sort out their MBA plans as soon as possible.
It is to make sure that we can speak to these applicants at a time convenient for them that we created the early decision round. This is a first time for us and while we do not expect this to trigger a massive change in applicant behavior, we see it as a plus for applicants, who now have five deadlines to choose from.
EL: What is the deposit amount associated with an early decision application?
PM: The deposit amounts do not change – the first deposit remains at EUR 3000 but will be due no later than November 16th (vs. January 11th for round 1). The second deposit remains unchanged too (EUR 7000) and will be due on January 30th.
EL: Is admission legally binding?
PM: We prefer not to think of the admissions conversation in legal terms. For sure, any admission letter issued by IESE represents a firm commitment we will always honour. I am not aware of any situation where such a decision might have been revoked.
On the candidate side of things, deposit payments are designed to formalize a candidate’s commitment to starting the program. It is in their very nature to be non-refundable – a more effective way then legal constraints to get a sense of who will join the class in the end.
There again: candidates withdrawing after paying the full deposit are a very rare occurrence.
EL: Who should consider applying early admission?
PM: As mentioned above, this round is designed with those applicants in mind who want to sort their MBA plans out very early. This may be for a variety of reasons such as wanting time to set up a pre-MBA internship in a new industry, making financing arrangements of a specific type or simply dealing with one’s own impatience.
Another reason might be related to the scholarship process. Candidates dependent on a scholarship should consider applying early in general, as this means that no scholarship funds will yet be committed at the moment of their application and more time will remain should the scholarship committee ask for better test-scores or simply delay the decision.
EL: We also noticed you’ve revamped the application this year! One of the things that caught our attention the most was removing the option to answer the optional essay question through video. Can you tell us a little more about this decision?
PM: Removing the optional video essay was a tough decision, as we have seen some spectacular videos over the years. I certainly enjoyed myself a lot reviewing submissions.
The difficulty from an admissions process standpoint, however, was that due to the optional nature of this submission, it was a lot of work to create a level playing field for candidates. Some videos were so sophisticated and obviously contained so much work that it required a significant effort to rebalance it as part of the holistic approach to the application. Of course, great videos were a show of motivation and commitment, but at the end of the day we are a business school, not a film school.
If we reintroduce video as a component of the application it will have to be in the form of a mandatory submission, perhaps to be filmed in real time, leveraging one of the technological solutions on the market, as some of our competitors already do.
EL: We also really enjoyed the new question for Essay 1: “How do you expect to be changed by your experience at IESE and what impact you would like to make after your MBA?” Would you give applicants any advice when brainstorming what to write for this question?
PM: We are definitely looking forward to applicants’ response to this new essay question.
My advice to candidates would be not to obsess with the wording of the question and take a step back to put themselves in our shoes.
We deploy a lot of resources getting to know our candidates. I like to think that my team is actually very good at this and we have a tendency to engage in close dialogue with our applicants, at all stages of the process, often long before an application is actually submitted.
Now, what that means in terms of this specific essay is that this is an opportunity for candidates to tell the admissions committee how they see IESE. It is an essay that tries to explore what will be the dynamics of the relationship between the candidate and the program over time. From the admissions committee’s perspective it will be a powerful way to find out if an applicant has understood who we are and what we can offer in terms of personal transformation.
EL: Changing topics a little bit, IESE’s employment data for the past year was really impressive! Can you tell us a little bit more about IESE’s recruiting process?
PM: IESE’s MBA program has been undergoing tremendous growth over the past decade and one area that has been continuously reinforced, specifically in the past five years, is our career services offering.
(Students attend an IESE on-campus recruiting event, photo courtesy IESE Business School)
There has been a noticeable shift in MBA recruiting since the financial crisis and by that I mean that the MBA-recruiting space has become tougher globally, in Europe in particular. Gone are the days where banks and consulting firms would just gobble up freshly minted MBAs and pay them six-figure salaries.
The number of firms recruiting MBAs in a structured manner has been shrinking and competition among MBA programs to end up in the limited array of “target schools” is fierce. IESE is one of the very few schools in Europe that enjoy what I would call the “full recruiter portfolio”. With the exception of very few players, all companies hiring MBAs come to recruit at IESE.
I would advise applicants to very carefully research this aspect of the schools they apply to: there is a huge difference between an employment report stating that company X has hired an MBA from a given school and company X actually targeting that school for recruitment.
If you take hiring by the top three strategy consulting firms, the so-called “MBB”, as an indicator, this year is probably the best we have ever had in terms of employment: more than 40 of our summer interns are currently doing their internships with these firms alone.
But of course, nobody here is complacent. The people who stand behind these numbers, who get up every morning to help our students getting the best out of their careers, are very aware that there are no more “low hanging fruit” around and that only hard work, humility and dedication can preserve this exceptional positioning we have achieved.
EL: An ever-increasing number of our clients are interested in pursuing careers in tech post-MBA. How can IESE prepare them to make this career transition?
PM: The trend you see is one that we have also been watching in terms of student preferences over the past years.
As mentioned earlier, our career services offering has been reinforced accordingly. “Tech sector” is a catch all for a wide range of products, company sizes and cultures as well as of new and established players. Wherever you draw the lines of what is called “tech”, what we can say for sure is that this is a growing sector. What in turn implies is that there will be a greater openness for career changers pivoting along their functional experience.
(information provided courtesy IESE Business School’s website)
In other terms and all other things being equal, I would advise candidates to leverage their functional experience to break into this sector.
To put this advice into perspective, other sectors will be more interested in prior sector experience. The healthcare industry for example is notoriously difficult to enter for profiles without sector experience.
In terms of what IESE does to assist students with the transition, I would point to the strength of our business development with major players in the sector and our ability to attract those on campus, whether that is as part of our career forums or for ad-hoc company presentations on campus. Our alumni presence is very strong both with large corporates like Amazon, Microsoft or Google and younger, smaller firms. What all these companies have in common is that they value the entrepreneurial mindset of our graduates, their cultural mobility and the general management perspective they have been trained to bring to any business situation.
Finally, IESE’s focus on people as the heartblood of any organization, and the leadership potential that our graduates bring to the table, is a clear asset to fast growing companies in general and those of the tech sector in particular.
EL: Are there any other new initiatives you’d like to share with us?
PM: There is going to be a lot happening in the entrepreneurship space in the coming months. Not all of it is finalized yet, but stay tuned.
EL: We’re excited to hear that and we’ll have to write more on that as updates become available! Switching gears a little bit, what’s the best way for interested applicants to get to know the school better?
PM: As I mentioned earlier, IESE has a culture of engaging extensively and early on with our candidates. The easiest way to get to know each other is to start a conversation with the dedicated associate director for a given region.
(Photo courtesy IESE Business School’s website)
From a practical standpoint I would recommend potential applicants to use the following form to request feedback on their profile.
Once the form completed and submitted, we will be in touch with them for a personalized consultation. Of course there are many other ways. Sometimes prospective candidates simply drop by at our Barcelona campus and ask for a tour.
We are generally quite flexible in our way of operating but extensive travel puts constraints on our spontaneity, so the safest way to engage, is through the above link. We look forward to hearing from your clients!
Thank you so much.
EL: Thank you for your time, Pascal. You’ve definitely shared great information about what’s new at IESE, and we’re excited to see what’s in store!
Ellin Lolis Consulting began with one mission: provide the best possible service to our clients and get them the best possible results. Serving our customers is at the core of our company, and we know that applying for an MBA can be a difficult, long process, but our goal is to take away as much of the stress as possible by acting as your ally in the process.
So if you need much more than just a few comments on your essay, but instead want focused help choosing schools and setting yourself up for long term success, we can help!
In the words of our client Henrique, who was recently accepted into IESE, “Ellin helped me in the application process since the beginning on how to organize myself. I truly believe that my interactions with her not only provided a foundation for the application creation, but also, and more importantly, structured my life at business school.
I had 100% acceptance rate and got a €60,000 scholarship.
She provided the most important insight into which school I fit and how to market myself. I really recommend her since she is really committed, hard-working made me feel comfortable and confident during the entire process. Thanks for the phenomenal service, Ellin.”
We know an MBA is not simply a gamble, it’s an investment in your future.
If you’re ready to put the Ellin Lolis advantage to work for you in helping you reach your goals of attending a top business school, or if you’re not sure where to start, schedule your free consultation and let us help you get the best possible results and help you take your career and life to the next level.
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School-specific sample essays that got our clients accepted
